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Famed dance company to make Savannah Music Festival debut

Bill T. Jones

Bill T. Jones (Photo provided)

Dance is music in motion. The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present “PLAY & PLAY: An Evening of Movement & Music” March 23 at the Lucas Theatre. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by the Dover Quartet and ensemble39, two groups comprised of Curtis Institute graduates.

The two-hour performance will include “D-Man in the Waters,” set to Mendelssohn’s “Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20,” and “Story,” set to Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 14 in D minor,” also known as “Death and the Maiden.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6XB5zipf9s

The company was formed by Bill T. Jones and the late Arnie Zane, who collaborated as a duet for 11 years. The two utilized their physical differences to create works that were striking and original, redefining the duet form.

Since its founding, the company has performed worldwide and is recognized as one of the most innovative companies in the dance world. Its repertory is widely varied in subject matter, visual imagery and stylistic approach to movement.

“We founded the company in 1982,” Jones says. “Arnie maybe even more than I wanted to open to a larger community of people.

“He wanted dancers who had greater technical skills than he and I did. Once he committed himself to having a company, everything changed in terms of fundraising, profile and infrastructure.

“The company has always tried to maintain a diverse group,” Jones says. “Arnie and I were two odd-looking people on stage, and we took that as a strength.”

After Zane’s death in 1988, Jones kept the company going. “The company is alive because I wanted to keep it alive after Arnie died,” he says.

“I wanted to continue to have the means to talk to the world through human bodies. I call them ‘sublime material.’”

The company has received numerous awards, including New York Dance and Performance Awards.

Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical “Fela!,” and won the Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography. In 2007, he won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for “Spring Awakening.”

In 1994, Jones received a MacArthur Genius Award and in 2010 a Kennedy Center Award. He has received numerous other awards, and in 2000, the Dance Heritage Coalition named him “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.”

Today, he no longer dances, but remains the company’s choreographer and director.

“One of the dangers is that dance is for young people only,” he says. “There is something very rigorous about it. Dancers begin to worry about marriage, children. To keep a dancer 10 years is quite an accomplishment.

“Soon, the dancers were the age of my children, if I had them, now the age of my grandchildren, if I had them,” Jones says. “The important thing about body-based art form is that it must be in real time.”

Jones says the entire company is excited about coming to the Savannah Music Festival. “It’s a very exciting program,” he says. “‘D-Man in the Waters’ is a signature piece for the company dating back to 1988.”

Jones has created hundreds of dance works. “Every time I make a new work, particularly since I’m not dancing now, I’m interested in what is the meaning of a dance and the shape of a dance,” he says.

“I’m a control freak,” Jones says. “A new dance opens up a whole new realm of mysterious exploration. So many elements get put together, almost by random processes.”

The Savannah audience has a unique opportunity to see modern dance at its finest. “If you are at all interested in the beauty of the human body in motion, framed by strong questions about beauty and time and space, this is a good concert,” Jones says.

“The music is pretty high-falutin’ and the dancers are very talented, a very beautiful group of young people. They really give their all.

“It’s an exciting evening at the theater,” he says. “Bring your loved ones. There will be a lot to talk about when this performance is over.”